Search Arrays in Database

[briant]

Hello everyone.

 

OK, I know storing imploded arrays in a database field isn't the best technique but I think it's more organized.

 

Well, I'm working on a movies database that consist of Actors field listing all the actors for that movie. They are separated by a simple comma.

 

For ie: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Jae Head.

 

I would like to list all the movies an actor has appeared in using SELECT.

 

Normally, I would use a wildcard *Will Smith* but if another actor was *Smith*... that method wouldn't work.

 

Is there a way to make a field explode into an array then search it using SELECT?

 

Hope someone understands what I'm trying to accomplish. Thanks in advance.

[bluejay002]

if you want to be specific with will smith, you can use %will smith% instead. i think that would suffice, unless you specifically stated there %smith% it will display all other patterns that match to it.

[briant]

Hello bluejay002,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I meant to put % as the wildcard instead of *. But I wanted to find an exact array value instead of partial. Wildcards won't help.

[sasa]

look http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/string-functions.html#function_find-in-set

[briant]

I LOVE YOU Sasa. You helped me before. I think that's exactly what I am looking for thanks so much.